Donkeys, Kids and Kings

Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Luxor, Nile River Valley, Egypt
The weather was going to be hot hot hot today so we had a five am start to try and beat the heat. Most of our sight seeing is in desert with no shade available anywhere - just tourists standing in the baking hot sun. We saw some pretty badly sunburnt tourists later in the day.
Our day began with a short ferry ride across to the west bank of the Nile then a forty minute journey by Egyptian Mercedes - donkeys! Originally Mayer and I had decided that it would be best for Mike not to ride the donkey so as not to aggravate his neck . Mike was not happy with this arrangement at all. He was cranky as buggery with us. In the end he got his donkey. I have to say the ride was less jarring than I expected so I was glad he didn't miss it however out of all the donkeys it was Mike's donkey that stumbled a couple of times. This meant he was jerked around a bit. Ultimately he enjoyed his donkey ride. My donkey was called SimSim and was so calm but also so slow! It was fun riding through the streets of Luxor weaving through cars and vans and people, saying "good morning" to the locals. They all laugh, smile and wave. They really have been so welcoming.
After this we boarded a 'kappout' or boxcar (essentially a modified one ton ute which has a box like cabin on the back where people sit - like a military truck) to get the Valley of the Kings. It was getting hot even though it was still quite early. There is absolutely no photography allowed anywhere here, not even outside so my pics are photos of bought photos. It was getting hotter as we got back into our kappout for the drive to Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut located near the Valley of the Kings at Deir el Bahari . It's a huge complex and it is very different to the temples we had previously seen. Tragically this site was also where 62 people (mostly tourists) were massacred by Islamist extremists in 1997.
The heat was pretty intense and one of our group who had a couple of other issues needed a bit of TLC and was returned to our Hotel. Mayer handled all of this so well. We had a few minutes at the Colossi of Memnon, then headed to the El Tayyeb family home to have lunch. They are local farmers. There was 9 kids between three families who all live there. It was fantastic. Loved loved loved the kids and the food was amazing! They really were a lovely family. People here have so little and just make do with what they have. We really need to take a good look at ourselves.
Straight after lunch we headed to the Karnak Temple Complex. The heat seemed a little less intense. This is another huge complex - the biggest in the world. Approximately 30 pharaoh's contributed to the buildings here.
It's weird but in a lot of countries the locals love to have their picture taken with foreigners . I had a few teenage boys ask, next thing I knew I was surrounded by a group of blokes who gave me geranium flowers to hold in the picture????? Bizarre but hilarious. One must embrace the bizarre from time to time! I felt like a celebrity. Mayer said people do this a lot and some even frame the pictures and put them in their house!
Finally arrived back at the hotel after a massively long day. Though exhausted, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the temples at Luxor which were right outside our hotel. It was really nice to visit a temple at night. Just a different perspective. We then had a meal at the hotel. I ordered a burger and fries (trust me there was not much on offer and we were too buggered to go out searching for food. I swear my burger was an Egyptian maccas burger.)
After a very long day it was back on an overnight train to return to Cairo. For the train ride Mayer bought a box of little sweet pastries for us all to try. Sweet here means super, super sweet. We all went to sleep on a little sugar high.
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